Ilinca

“It seems to her that her education is more than just a way to escape poverty. It is a weapon of choice against stagnation in a kind of feminine condition that arouses her pity, the tendency to lose oneself in a man, which she has experienced, and of which she is ashamed. She feels no desire to marry or have children. Mothering and the life of the mind seem incompatible. In any case, she'd be sure to be a bad mother. Her ideal is the union libre in the poem by Andre Breton.”
― Annie Ernaux, The Years

“Too much of water hast thou poor Ophelia, and therefore I forbid my tears.
But yet it is our trick, let shame say what it will. when these are gone the women will be out!
Adieu my lord, I have a speech of fire that fane would blaze,
But that this folly doubts it.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet